With the risk of infection a key concern within the medical environment, it is important to provide safe and effective means to dispose of contaminated material such as syringes, other sharps, blood contaminated products and the like.
While containers have been developed for such purposes, there are a number of issues to address in order to achieve a safe and effective means of disposal. The opening of the container must be such that the material is properly received and does not fall out which is a problem with some current designs in which the opening is either too small or not suitably positioned to allow a user to partially insert a waste tray. Additionally, existing containers may not be suitably tamper-proof and/or do not properly prevent a user inserting their hand or at least their fingers through the opening and into the receptacle housing the contaminated products.
Existing containers may also not provide a final closure which securely covers the opening for waste. Even if provided, these final closures often interfere with the insertion of waste into the opening while the container is in use.